Eyewitness Abdulrahman Aidroos was near the mosque in north London when tragedy struck after the vehicle went into worshippers coming out of the mosque to break their fast following prayers.

Appearing on today’s edition of This Morning, he told hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield about the incident and even protecting the attacker after he left his van.

He said that he had gone to help an elderly man, who was feeling faint due to fasting over Ramadan and the heatwave, when the vehicle suddenly appeared.

“There was old man laying down on the floor, who I think had an attack. There were people around him to give him CPR. Then within seconds [the car] just moved and drove at us out of nowhere,” he explained.

Abdulrahman continued: “We heard it speeding, a car turning around within seconds, everyone was on the floor.”

“We heard the engine very loudly and he came out of his van. He was saying, ‘I want to kill more Muslims.’ Everyone was trying to run.”

Luckily, Abdulrahman and his friends were able to apprehend the man: “He came past me and we took him down to the floor. I put him on the ground.”

He explained that it took between 15 and 20 minutes for the police to arrive and during that time he tried to engage with the terrorist as well as stopping angry people trying to kick the man on the ground.

“I asked him repeatedly, ‘Why have you done this? Why? Why? There are any innocent people underneath the van’. I asked him why did he do this? Everyone was sad and crying,” he said.

Abdulrahman went on to say: “I was trying to protect him and I was saying stop [to people trying to attack him]. Again, he is a human as well. I was trying to not harm him as well when the police came, they handcuffed him.”